There is something more I want to say, but first some reflections on what I am thinking and feeling at this moment. It has been a dark, windy, rainy day here today, but I have made my way home and had some leftovers. I am warm, dry and comfortable and in a pensive frame of mind. This time of year around the holidays often makes me feel sentimental and nostalgic. At this time of year and as I get older, there seems to be more time and a greater propensity to reflect less on where I am and more on where I have come from.

Recently, we recorded a show from the TV, some Rock Hall of Fame show. One of the acts was Simon and Garfunkel, with whom my generation is quite familiar. It turns out my teenage son, who is a burgeoning musician, found his introduction to them especially inspiring. His statement was something like, “Amazingly awesome,” or, “Awesomely amazing.” He continues to listen to the performance over and over. As I listened with him, I found my nostalgia growing. I was inspired to start something I had been contemplating for a while.

I had been thinking about my youth more over the last few years. A year or so ago I had the thought that it would be nice to have a gathering of some of the people I grew up with. I have been shamefully lacking in my efforts to stay in touch with the people I once knew so well. I realized that it was time to initiate an effort to give people an opportunity to get together with their friends again.

I was thinking of a good time to try to make this happen, and realized that next year would be the 40th anniversary of the closing of Louisville Academy High School. I know, it is hard to believe but 1970 was the end of an era. Someone wrote a book awhile back titled or at least based on the idea, “I learned all I needed to know in kindergarten.” For me, I had a lot more to learn, but it reminded me that growing up in the community of Louisville was an important factor in the rest of my life.

If you are from my era, you will remember some of the same things I do about our old school. I remember the worn stone steps of the old Louisville Academy building, the wide hallways, the weights that clanked when the windows went up and down and the smell of Mr. Cofer’s cigar. I remember how high the ceilings looked, the wide stairs between the floors and how scary the basement seemed the first year in school. I remember the playground patches of grass and sand where we played ball and marbles, and the big trees that gave us shade. I was always impressed too by the grand arch at the entrance. I remember the teachers like Mrs. Farmer, Mrs. McBride, Mrs. Bethea and Mrs. Murphy from my early years. I remember the nights at the ballgames, the Halloween carnival, the gymnasium and the crowds. The people in those crowds were me and you and our friends. Let us see who we can gather back together for a couple of days.

My hope is to facilitate a gathering; A gathering of some of us from the era of Louisville Academy before or around 1970. I hope you will be interested in getting together with your old friends, anyone who was a student, teacher, staff member, etc. I need your help getting the word out; I know the whereabouts of so few. I am hoping we can find all those who might be interested in joining us. I hope each of you will contact people you know and each of them will contact people they know and so on. If it is only a small group that gathers, so be it, but I hope for a good showing from all age groups. I was thinking it best if we did not meet in the hot season and not too close to the holidays. I realized that there was a date in the fall that might be easy for everyone to remember – 10/10/10. That date falls on a Sunday and hopefully the days before that date would be suitable.

That means there is only a few months to get things rolling and see where it leads. I hope you will share this call to gather with everyone that you know who might be interested. If you are interested in joining in this effort, please contact me. It would be “Amazingly awesome” to hear from you and see people get together.

I would like to start off by saying the taxpayers of Glascock County need to look at what the commissioners let the new road superintendent get away with. He doesn’t get permission to spend over $500 and he buys from retailers like Southern Pipe and has to pay more for it because he doesn’t like doing what he is supposed to do. We need to get Mr. Jr. Kitchens back before the county gets in a lot of trouble.

The road department is not supposed to get off of the right of way but they’re doing it now but it is because who the people are. I wish I could get the road department to clear my lot off for me. The commissioners let that nut fire the best guy at the landfill and the man was sick. I hope what I heard is true about that fellow is going to sue the county and the superintendent because he cussed him and his wife out. Now that was wrong and I also know that it takes two commissioners to fire or hire. The road superintendent does not have the authority, that is a state law when it is taxpayer funded. Hey, Mr. Reed, you need to go back to school if you think you can do that. I don’t know who is scraping the roads in Glascock County but they need lessons from James Shelton and Mr. Kitchens. The roads stayed in good shape when Mr. Kitchens was the road superintendent. The roads got scraped every week, not once every three months. When Mr. Kitchens was the road superintendent we had a good fellow that would be there to fix everything around the county buildings but now Mr. Reed will not let him come up there no more so the county is having to pay more money because he will not let the one hired for it do it.